The kids of The Band’s Robbie Robertson have filed a lawsuit towards the late rocker’s widow, claiming that she abused him financially to inherit a part of his property by coercing him to execute paperwork which can be “oppressive, abusive and opposite to his expressly acknowledged intentions,” based on authorized paperwork filed this week in California.
Robertson’s three youngsters joined the trustees of his property and belief, Adriane Hibbert and David Jackel, as plaintiffs within the case towards Janet Zuccarini, who they are saying in 2023, whereas Robertson’s well being and psychological capability was in decline, introduced him with a plan to buy David Geffen’s former house in Beverly Hills for $6 million by which, based on the go well with, the 2 could be “equal homeowners and equal contributors to bills.” Nonetheless, he ponied up all the $1.8 million down cost, based on the grievance.
A 12 months later, the guitarist’s most cancers returned, making him unable to learn or write after it absolutely metastasized, the grievance reads. As his well being deteriorated, Zuccarini and Robertson eloped within the spring of 2023 in a ceremony that was “stored secret” from his relations, his youngsters Delphine, Sebastian and Alexandra Robertson state within the go well with.
“A good time for marriage,” the go well with claims Zuccarini had determined. She then had Robertson, a Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame inductee who’s credited with serving to create the Americana music style, signal a prenuptial settlement, figuring out he “was not in a position to learn and wouldn’t comprehend the true import of what he was signing”; she noticed an “alternative to embark on a wedding with a sick and dying man,” his youngsters and the trustees allege within the grievance.
Additionally they allege that Zuccarini received Robinson to spend $175,957 on renovations and $3,381.31 on furnishings and furnishings” on the Beverly Hills house. This quantities to “monetary elder abuse” and “tortious interference with inheritance,” the go well with concludes. Following Robertson’s loss of life in August 2023, Zuccarini’s attorneys instructed the belief of its legal responsibility to her for half of her dwelling bills for so long as she remained within the Beverly Hills house.
“Given her actuarial life expectancy, measured in many years, Robertson’s modest property and belief could be drained dry until Zuccarini determined to surrender this sinecure and discover a new place to stay that she may pay for on her personal,” the grievance states.
After Robertson’s youngsters reached out to Zuccarini to say their father had instructed them the property could be their inheritance, her attorneys started to play hardball, the go well with claims, telling them if Zucarini didn’t obtain her “windfall” then an earlier “Even-Steven funds” settlement it might be defaulted to and she or he’d even be “an omitted partner entitled to a one-third share of Robertson’s complete property.” But the youngsters declare within the go well with that Zuccarini explicitly instructed them, in writing, that she knew their father didn’t perceive what he was signing and that he by no means would have executed so if he knew she’d get half of his property.
The go well with requires the courtroom to cancel the previous couple’s property settlement modification from March 2023, and that compensatory and punitive damages be paid.
“This lawsuit is a meritless fiction and the reality will prevail,” Gabrielle A. Vidal, an lawyer for Zuccarini, mentioned in a press release to the the L.A. Occasions on Friday. “This can be a gross and exploitative try by Robbie Robertson’s youngsters to eviscerate their father’s expressed needs for his beloved spouse Janet.”
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Vidal on Friday.
